 |
GetTextbooks.com
Compare Prices & Save up to 90% |
|
|
|
| Login | Sign up | Settings | My Wish List |
 | | The Writer's Life : Intimate Thoughts on Work, Love, Inspiration, and Fame from the Diaries of the World's Great Writers by Carol Edgarian, Tom Jenks ISBN-10: 9780679769576 ISBN-10: 0-679-76957-9 ISBN-13: 9780679769576 ISBN-13: 978-0-679-76957-6 Paperback 1997-10-28 Vintage Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description PAUL AUSTER ¸ CHARLOTTE BRONTE ¸ WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS ¸ NOEL COWARD ¸ GUSTAVE FLAUBERT ¸ ANNE FRANK ¸ FRANZ KAFKA Ambition. Fame. Sex. Envy. Gossip. Money. Death. They re all here, in this dazzling book of quotations--many of them previously unpublished--from the diaries, journals, and notebooks of the world s greatest writers. Arranged chronologically, from the fervent declarations of youth to the serene reflections of old age, The Writer's Life spans twenty-three countries and four centuries to observe the entire spectrum of the human condition, with particular attention to the joys and agonies of literary endeavor. Eloquent, candid, brimming with passion, insight and wit, the result is an invaluable resource for any writer--or for anyone seeking expert instruction in the art of being human. On inspiration: "I am going to write because I cannot help it." --Charlotte Bronte On fame: "I dream that my face appears on a postage stamp." --John Cheever On sex: "In petting there is no Mason-Dixon line." --Delmore Schwartz On keeping a journal: "Writing a journal means that facing your ocean you are afraid to swim across it, so you attempt to drink it drop by drop." --George Sand HERMAN MELVILLE ¸ SYLVIA PLATH ¸ JAMES SALTER ¸ SAPPHIRE ¸ MARY SHELLEY ¸ HENRY DAVID THOREAU ¸ LEO TOLSTOY ¸ ALICE WALKER ¸ OSCAR WILDE | ||
Amazon.com Review Books of quotations tend toward the pithy and the trite. A quotation is the literary equivalent of a sound bite, after all--clever or funny or wise, and nearly always short, if not sweet. In The Writer's Life, a collection of excerpts from writers' diaries, Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks have gone after something different altogether. Yes, the book has its share of one-liners, but there are also plenty of longer, ruminating passages, some stretching the length of a full page. More than 200 writers weigh in on subjects concerning both life and work. "Our goal," state the editors in an introductory note, "was not to create a scholarly book or one of interest only to writers or lovers of great writing, but rather to create ... [a] book in which readers can find aspects of their own experiences revealed through the lens of art." What also sets this book apart from many of its ilk is the rigor with which its editors sought out new material for their entries. In addition to following the more traditional paths of research--bookstores, rare-book dealers, libraries, the Internet--they asked hundreds of contemporary writers for entries from their diaries. Their efforts pay off. The conversationalists gathered here--including John Cheever, Rita Dove, Athol Fugard, Witold Gombrowicz, Barbara Pym, Theodore Roethke, J.D. McClatchy, and Leo and Sophia Tolstoy--make for fine company indeed. --Jane Steinberg | ||